The Belmont Club Manifesto

Despite the hoo-hah, fewer people voted in 2012 than in 2008. Neither Obama nor Romney got many votes for all the money they spent. According to the subscription only King Report:

Obama received 69,456,897 votes in 2008. He got 59,651,236 or 9.8 million fewer (-14.1%), in 2012. McCain got 59,934,814 votes in 2008. Romney received 57,028,531, about 2.9 million fewer votes. Jimmy Carter's vote total dropped 5.4 million in 1980 vs. 1976 or 13%. Obama was down 14.1%!

How can you do worse than Jimmy Carter and yet still win? Answer: because nobody thinks we can vote out the Machine any more. We now live in a world where Jesse Jackson Jr can win re-election from the Mayo Clinic.

Before the election the Washington Post broke down the reasons why more than 50 million Americans would not vote: "too busy ... not interested ... out of town."

Washington is growing exponentially at a time when nobody seems to believe in its promises at all. People are hanging up, shutting down.

Maybe they're waiting for "someone" to fix things; "someone" to pay the gas bills; "someone" to pay the rent. But the truth is that "someone" has got to be them.

It's not going to be the government.

The future will belong to those who build new networks and find ways to do stuff while the men in the capital spin their wheels. Mike Flynn writes that the Beltway Consultant Class is no longer worth the money, even to politicians. It charges more and more to flog the public harder and yet harder. But the Old Gray Mare isn't even getting up any more.

This year, the GOP and its allies spent around $1 billion to win fewer votes than John McCain received in 2008. To be sure, Obama won fewer votes than in 2008. Overall turnout was down about 14 million from four years ago. With so much at stake, and with so many resources at its disposal, how did the GOP manage to turn out fewer voters than McCain's anemic campaign? ...

Hopefully, the Romney campaign is the last run by the DC consultant class. They finally had the full range of resources to run their playbook, and it fell woefully short.

In the next election they'll just make up the votes.

The future lies in building up new networks and methods for the purpose -- if nothing else -- of surviving the consequences of this gigantic incompetence. In the next week's posts I will try to end each one with a descriptive essay or a screen capture video that illustrates some practical idea that can be used to save or make money.

In the coming years revolutionary acts will be indistinguishable from self-improvement. To be productive and keep as much as possible of what you earn is to be free.